Far 2 Fabulous

The Alzheimer's Prevention Plan: Taking Control of Your Brain Health and Wellness

• Julie Clark & Catherine Chapman • Episode 36

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Can you imagine a world where Alzheimer’s is largely preventable? Join us as we explore this groundbreaking concept with insights from Patrick Holford's "The Alzheimer's Prevention Plan." With a staggering new diagnosis every three seconds, we underscore the urgency of understanding and combating this disease. We'll walk you through ten actionable strategies that align with broader wellness practices, offering a roadmap to take control of your brain health and overall well-being.

Ever wondered how your diet affects your brain? We break down the science behind essential nutrients like omega-3s, B vitamins, and whole grains. Learn why these elements are crucial for brain function and how simple dietary shifts can lead to significant health benefits. We'll also discuss practical tips for testing your omega-3 and vitamin D levels, especially as we head into the darker winter months, and share personal stories of how dietary resets have transformed our health.

Your gut is more important than you might think—it’s your second brain! Discover the profound connection between gut health and emotional balance, and why maintaining a healthy gut is essential for nutrient absorption. We also highlight lifestyle changes, such as physical activity and social interaction, that can bolster cognitive function. Tune in for a comprehensive approach to preventing Alzheimer's, from dietary adjustments to mental exercises and stress reduction techniques. Don't miss our discussion on the Food for the Brain quiz and how it can help you assess your risk and make proactive changes. Join us on this journey to a healthier brain and a more vibrant life.

Got a question or comment? Send us a text message here!

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Thank you for listening.

You can continue the conversation with us in the Far 2 Fabulous Facebook group. Come and connect with other women on a journey to empowered health.


For more information about Julie Clark Nutrition, click HERE
For more information about Catherine Chapman, click HERE

As Julie said at the beginning of the show, she has created a fun, free download to Boost your Brain. So click here to take part in Brain Bingo!

We look forward to you joining us on the next episode.

julie:

Welcome to Far T Fabulous hosted by Julie and.

catherine:

Catherine, join us on a mission to embrace your fabulousness and redefine wellness. Get ready for some feistiness, inspiration, candy chats and humour as we journey together towards empowered well-being.

julie:

Let's dive in. Hello, hello and welcome to this week's podcast episode where Catherine and I are back together today, sitting opposite each other. Now, today we're going to talk about brain health, because it is World Alzheimer's Month and this subject will tie in nicely with some of the things that we've been speaking about recently, and I think that brain health is incredibly important, because I don't think we really think about it until it's too late. Yeah, and we've got a rather big issue in this country, because every three seconds, someone gets diagnosed with dementia and alzheimer's, and if you've ever had any experience with this, I think it's the worst thing.

catherine:

Yeah that's an incredibly high number, isn't it? It's the worst thing. Yeah, that's an incredibly high number, isn't it? It's quite scary. I'm fortunate that I've not had anybody in my very, very close family that has suffered from it, but certainly people around me I've seen it happen to and it's devastating for them and it's absolutely devastating for the people around them.

julie:

Yeah, it's a horrible, horrible disease. And here's the shocking thing it is mostly preventable this.

catherine:

This is what shocked me. Whilst we've been sort of looking into all of this, this has been the thing that I keep coming back to is and this is this is that this is a running theme with me? Why don't? I know?

julie:

why don't I know this and does everyone else know this? I, but why don't I know this and does everyone else know this?

catherine:

I, but I don't, I genuinely don't think everyone else knows this. I I think that people think it's uh, it's just like a gamble with your health or your genes or something and they don't realize quite how much control they have over it, which is which is exciting and scary like all at the same time, isn't it?

julie:

yeah, I guess. So big diseases are generally preventable a lot of the time yes but I think, particularly with alzheimer's and dementia, that we just as an as a society, just consider that to be yeah, it's, it's unlucky that you get it and you can't do anything to prevent it. So to say again it is preventable. Yeah, so it's exciting that that is the case it.

catherine:

You know I was running today and so for me, obviously, physical health and your sort of your mental and spiritual well-being are, I have always said, are the absolute most important thing. And so when I'm talking to people like around my business and I say, if you haven't got these things in place, there's no, you don't don't need to do anything else because you're not going to be able to sustain life like you want to if you haven't got these things in place. But actually, as I was running today and I knew that we were going to be talking about this brain health, it has to, it actually has to start there, because without brain health you haven't got the energy, you haven't like your brain runs the show yeah, it does use a lot of energy your brain as well, especially when you're learning.

julie:

I'm learning all the time, clearly. Yeah, yeah, me too actually, but I like learning and I know that you like learning and that can help prevent well, can be, can go towards preventing dementia if you are learning and using those parts of your brain but, I know that when we first introduced this podcast and we spoke a bit about ourselves, um, if you haven't listened to that, you can go back to the start and that's the most.

catherine:

I think it's the most popular one. That very first one recap that one?

julie:

yeah, I think you're right. Um, I spoke about patrick holford being the probably the the catalyst for me becoming a nutritionist, because I'd read his book at a point where I wasn't getting help by the doctors, and he wrote a book in 2005 called the alzheimer's prevention plan, and he is super passionate about it. In fact, I was watching one of his webinars that he did at the end of last year. Um, he's got a charity that is really pushing this side of things because it's going to drain the NHS again, isn't it?

catherine:

yeah, absolutely, and it's like you know, we talk about empowerment um in within your well-being, and this is absolutely what we're talking about, and that yeah, and the thing that blows my mind about this is that he wrote that book nearly 20 years ago. We're no further on and we're no further.

julie:

Probably it's probably worse yeah, yeah, it probably probably is. So, yeah, it's the. The stats on the on the disease are terrible. If you're living with it, it's terrible.

catherine:

I certainly do not want to end up with dementia no, absolutely, and that's not to say that anybody that is suffering with dementia or begins to suffer with dementia, that is their fault. We're not laying any blame, because if there's not enough information about this, if people don't know about this isn't, then we don't know that we can do something about it exactly.

julie:

So the the other thing that I that brings a little smile to my face a bit, and you're like this as well, katherine is that I've written like 10 key areas that you can help. That that is basically on. This prevents alzheimer's plan. Yeah, be all the things that prevent the other things and all the other. Yeah, it's so, yeah, obvious when we go through it.

catherine:

Yeah, it's the same things that we would tell people to, yeah, to get fit, to get healthy, to get through the menopause. Well, it's the same sorts of things yeah, I know exactly.

julie:

So it does make me laugh. So in the nutrition world we often call alzheimer's and dementia diabetes of the brain. So have you heard that term?

catherine:

no, I haven't.

julie:

That's really interesting yeah, because there's a huge link with sugar. Again, it comes up so many times. So the first thing that we would want to do on a prevention plan is to keep our sugar down which is which explains why it's on the increase as well.

catherine:

Hey, because because sugar is in literally everything and after that whole study with the like, the fat free. So let's just take the fat out, pile a load of sugar in to keep the taste and to keep the consumers happy.

julie:

No wonder it's increased, I know exactly so a low sugar diet and focusing on the anti-inflammatory aspect of that. Typically, if you're on a low sugar diet, you're going to be, without realising it, on an anti-inflammatory diet because, it is low in the foods that are going to produce inflammation in the body.

julie:

anyway. Sugar is a massive cause of inflammation in the body. So anti-inflammatory diet guess what it is? It's a good source of protein, it's making sure that you eat your good fats, it's keeping processed foods low, damaged fats low or completely out of the diet and it's having a rainbow of foods. And that's not your skills again, because I know you always say that I mentioned eat the rainbow.

catherine:

You rainbow see marketing working really well there. Yeah, and that's, that's exactly that's one of the bonuses of, as I was looking at um, movement in with relation to this, and so one of the things that movement does is, uh, reduces inflammation and and again, it confirmed that that chronic inflammation in your body is terrible for your brain, and so when you're reducing that inflammation, it protects the brain cells and reduces the risk of here we go neurodegenerative diseases. There's a word that is.

julie:

That is a big word. I mean when, when you think about the, the brain, it's quite a fatty organ. Yeah, there's a lot of fat in there, and back in the day, when I used to do talks on this subject, I used to say to people when you're thinking about your diet, you want the, the signals, to flow between your brain really quickly, so you want those to be flowing down in some really nice oil. If you put this stodgy stuff in there, like and you try and fire a signal through lard, yeah, then that's going to be a problem.

julie:

And I wonder if that's where the term thick comes from being thick, or that your brain's thick and it's not yeah, firing on all cylinders, because you can't get the messages down quick because if it isn't, it should be yeah, I always wondered that, but yeah, that's what you say in my talks. I'd say if you think about your brain as this amazing fatty organ but you want to be able to pass these signals through really quickly, the best fats to feed your brain are going to be the oils that are are the slick ones yeah, that are not gonna.

catherine:

Not gonna harden, exactly not gonna harden. Yeah, not gonna get those big sugar sugar lumps. You're never gonna get. Not going to get those big sugar lumps. You're never going to get down the slide with all the sugar lumps in the way. I love these visuals. You can see how a visual person I am. I love all these visual things. Yeah, there's big potato wedges in the way. You're never going to get those signals through.

julie:

Imagine trying to wade through that and you'd be getting stuck.

catherine:

Yeah, you want to.

julie:

You want the the slide to be really oily don't you so? You can just whiz down there, yeah, get your signals through.

catherine:

Yeah, like like you want to water slide with the. Uh, what with the fairy liquid?

julie:

sliding down the garden.

catherine:

Yeah, but not fairy liquid. We don't want that in the brain no, exactly.

julie:

So one of the main components of the brain, as far as the fats are concerned, are omega-3. So omega-3 fats are essential. We have other amigas as well, but we want to be more dominant on the omega-3 side and we are more dominant on the omega-6 side.

julie:

That's what I was going to ask you to remind me I knew it was one of them that we were more dominant in yeah, omega-6, which is pro-inflammatory, and omega-3 is anti-inflammatory, but unfortunately, just the way that our the food chain works now we're more dominant in omega-6 and we need to make sure that we've got omega-3 for the brain. So we're looking at seeds and nuts, we're looking at oily fish see seeds and nuts and you've got walnuts in there. Right, I have got the walnuts in there, so walnuts are one of the highest in omega-3 that's it, and and there's.

catherine:

There's no coincidence that they look like a brain yeah, they do, don't they?

julie:

yeah, yeah. So brain fats and and nutrients for the brain also includes vitamin D, which is interesting.

catherine:

And what else can we eat then for all of those things?

julie:

So we've done our omega-3. For vitamin D, we're going to get that from the sun, yeah, but we can also get that from.

catherine:

We're not going to get it from the sun much longer.

julie:

It's quite grey actually today, isn't?

catherine:

it.

julie:

I'm beautiful already. Yeah, longer. It's quite gray actually today, isn't it? I'm beautiful already. Yeah, so we need to. So we could actually test our omega-3 indexed. You could test for that. It's not expensive to do and it will give you an idea of what level of omega-3 you've got, and it would also give you the ratio between the three and the six.

catherine:

Oh, interesting that's quite interesting, yeah and vitamin d.

julie:

I bang on about this all the time. If you're listening and you're one of my clients, you vitamin d. I bang on about this all the time. If you're listening and you're one of my clients, you know that I bang on about this. You should know your vitamin d level. Again, it's a blood test, it's not expensive and it's important to know, especially going into the winter, if what your vitamin d level is, because and how long does it?

catherine:

um like is it? Is it a snapshot? Does it give you a measurement over, sort of a longer period of time, or so your vitamin d is going to be a snapshot, but it's quite stable in the body, so it's not going to go up and down a lot, and omega-3, that's going to be a more of a longer term result.

julie:

So, yeah, omega-3 and vitamin d, and then the other ones that are incredibly important are the b vitamins. So b vitamins are involved in something called methylation, which is a series of chemical reactions that take place in the body for everything that goes on, and a byproduct of methylation is homocysteine, and again, you could test your homocysteine levels if you're someone that likes to look at that.

julie:

You know I'm geeky about yeah um, I like to know this like to know what's going on in there yeah, so if your homocysteine level rises, it's actually an indicator for lots of issues, okay. So, uh, if you've got high blood pressure, um, if you've got a risk of cancer, it's, it's a. It's a very good marker for the body being out of balance. Okay, and the way that we help homocysteine be cleared from the body and through methylation is with b vitamins. Yeah, so, b vitamins are also really important for the brain, and most of our b vitamins come from whole grain food. So when we look at something like rice, if rice is white, the outer husk has been removed. The outer husk has got all the nutrients in.

julie:

So when you eat white rice, you have no minerals in it. It literally is just sugar, whereas if you eat the whole grain, you get the B vitamins and the other minerals as well.

catherine:

Yeah, and all the fibrous content and yeah, and all the other good stuff as well yeah, yeah, exactly so there's a big difference there.

julie:

So when you're on your low sugar diet, you're more likely to be eating whole grains. Yeah, because you're going to be um on the slow releasing sugars and then that boosts your b vitamins and it tastes nicer and it's there's just more about it.

catherine:

Yeah, enough said. It just tastes nice and it's really interesting. I mean I, so I've just done your reset for the last couple of weeks. I've done, I've done it so many times.

julie:

I've got like so many recipes of yours I saw your your posts on instagram where you take this photo. It's been, I've been taking loads of photos.

catherine:

It's been brilliant, and what's really interesting is because I did it coming back from holiday and it wasn't very well on holiday just overnight not through any fault of my own other than I think I drank too much of the local water not sangria and so I just wanted to kind of settle everything down and obviously I've been on holiday. We didn't eat that that badly actually, but obviously there were there were ice creams.

julie:

There was different as well, different water and different everything, isn't it?

catherine:

so I just felt like I needed that reset and it really didn't take long to be able to start to taste things more to to, so for the fruit and the veg and stuff to really be tasty and and for the food to not have to need any kind of salt, all those sorts of things on. It really didn't take, take very long and like the whole grains and stuff to really just satisfy you and feel like lovely in your body. It was yeah, it wasn't. It was a real treat and so I've just I did it for two weeks actually and uh, and I'm, and I'm pretty much carrying it on. Yeah, just just adding a bit more bit more protein into it.

julie:

A lot of people, when they've done the reset, have said to me apart from the first few days where you're doing that liquid cleanse, that's different. Yeah, but then when you go into the rest of the plan, so many people have said to me isn't this just the way we should be eating?

catherine:

yeah, yes, it is, that's the way you should be surprised, right, yeah, well, I mean, oh god, I think I've got repetitive strain injury from chopping up all the sweet potatoes.

julie:

But yeah you have to do a lot of chopping, don't you? And then you know you have to chew your food as well, so yeah, but it's interesting you said about the the taste because that is a key part of doing the reset is that sugar masks the flavor of things and your tongue changes in accordance with the amount of sugar that you have, and so this is one of the issues I have with kids not liking vegetables.

julie:

It's mostly because they don't like the taste of them, because they've got too much sugar masking the flavors yeah, so they can't actually taste them no, no, but you know, like, like you've said, when you do the reset, the first time that you eat a carrot after doing those few days, yeah, carrot tastes amazing, doesn't it? And doesn't an apple taste really sweet?

catherine:

really yeah, yeah, yeah, really sweet. And then I um all the kids had one of those vile, like really sugary sweets, like there's like the laces with all the sugar oh my goodness, it nearly blew my head off. It was intolerably sweet yeah I just I couldn't.

catherine:

I mean like my glands set off. Oh, and it was. Yeah, it was to to the point that it didn't taste very nice at all. Yeah, um, yeah, so that's and that's what you said about the carrots. Actually, I had this conversation, uh, with my mum the other day and she said that a friend had said oh, have you tried the I don't know organic carrots from from somewhere? She said they taste like carrots used to taste when we were younger and and yes, perhaps the organic carrots from I don't know somewhere from a nice supermarket might taste slightly different, but actually I think it is a lot of our diets are so sugar heavy that we don't get to taste what we're eating no, exactly, exactly right.

julie:

We went off on a tangent there and I don't know where we were at we were talking about. We went from white rice to that oh, because we're talking about the b vitamins. There you go. Are you following Right next up? We've got antioxidants.

julie:

Now antioxidants are the body's way of repairing things, because everything that happens in our body creates debris. So I think about it like when you have a fire, and especially in like your log burner, and you get the ash in the tray, you've got to empty that out, right? That's what the antioxidants do, and for the brain they're going to be neuroprotective.

catherine:

So and vitamin d is also neuroprotective- I'd start when you were talking about vitamin d and kind of clearing things out, that's. I was thinking about antioxidants. I'm wondering if they did the same sort of job yeah, and antioxidants will help repair everything.

julie:

So if you've got I mean we've all got cancer cells in our body, they're there all the time, but it's whether they're allowed to get out of control is the issue. Yeah, and it's the antioxidants that will keep these things in check a lot of the time and, like I said, they clean up, they protect things and we get them from our colorful foods again yeah, from our bright, bright, bright, colorful foods.

julie:

Absolutely, I've just got like purple in my head at the moment yeah, well, the polyphenols in particular are very neuroprotective, so anything that's got a really dark color, like blackberries, for example, pomegranates, blueberries yeah all of those are going to be beneficial yeah so, yeah, you just want to have those in the diet.

julie:

Purple sprouting broccoli is a massive um superfood, really, although I don't like you know to single out certain foods, but that is that is particularly good. But antioxidants eat your polyphenols, and at least you're. You're putting in a plan to prevent these, these things, from going wrong in your body, aren't you?

catherine:

yeah, and I mean obviously you're not just preventing alzheimer's or dementia, these things are doing all the good things.

julie:

That's why I laughed when I was writing the list down, because I was thinking it's just the same list as I normally write down for general health, you know yeah and I'm when I'm speaking to my clients about what their food intake is yeah, and you get to feel amazing.

catherine:

You, genuinely, you can feel the reward in your body.

julie:

Yeah, when you have put these incredible things into it yeah, one of the things that also comes up particularly well well, it's a it's a main ingredient in the prevention plan are actually eggs, and I know that a lot of our totally plant-based vegan friends might not like that very much, but eggs are really a good source of choline and you need choline as well to to um combine with a phospholipid to protect your brain choline.

catherine:

Now, I don't that. I've heard most of these words.

julie:

I don't know what, necessarily what they mean, but I don't think I've ever heard choline oh okay, yeah, so choline is an important nutrient and, yeah, eggs are a particularly good source of choline within methylation colon, colon choline's used colons are next.

catherine:

We're going to talk about them next I'm going to talk about colon next.

julie:

We're going to talk about colon next. Yeah, Choline is an important part of methylation. So sometimes if I see someone switch to a plant-based diet and they haven't necessarily understood how some of these things work in their body, can have an issue with methylation. So that's an interesting one. And B12.

catherine:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

julie:

We know that that's a vulnerable nutrient yes, plant-based diet, yeah, no, absolutely that's.

catherine:

Yeah, I had. I had some hard-boiled eggs after my run today. I've been really was interesting, so from a few, if you ever listened to the episode where, um, I very bravely told julia I was counting calories, yeah, after she'd smacked me over the head, we talked about how much I'd learned from it, and one of the things was actually how much protein I should be having and actually how little protein I am having, especially as somebody that is as active as me and, oh, the marathon training has begun again and so being really mindful of how much protein I'm having, so, uh, yeah. So I headed down to Julia's today with two hard boiled eggs and a and a box of nuts very nice.

catherine:

Julia proves and my brain, my brain, approves clearly yeah, your brain, your brain will approve it needs all the help you can get, quite frankly I think protein is an interesting.

julie:

We might have to have a conversation about protein on its own, because protein and the breakdown of protein into amino acids again every single thing that happens in your body. An amino acid is the starting point and then it gets combined to something in a chemical reaction to get to the end product that your body's looking for. And as we get older, especially us ladies, we need more protein, yeah, so yeah, and weirdly, I think we probably do the opposite.

catherine:

In fact, we do the opposite with loads of things that we should be increasing and we like with weight lifting and eating and movement, yeah, we think that we should be reducing it and in fact, we should be going the other way yeah, yeah, exactly so.

julie:

Yeah, protein is a whole other subject, but, yes, very important, um, the next one I've got. So we've looked at the low sugar diet. We've looked at fats in the diet for the brain and certain nutrients. We're coming back to the gut again. Yeah, so the gut is A second brain. A second brain Makes sense, doesn't it? That highway link between the gut-brain axis is incredibly important and it's where we make our neurotransmitters, is it?

catherine:

Yes, Wow, did you not know that?

julie:

just me again I think that's why we get things like the gut feeling yeah, um, and that, and anything where we're feeling out of balance often comes back to the gut, doesn't it? Yeah because I think that's that's where the center of our emotions really are. Yeah, aren't they? Yeah, definitely yeah.

catherine:

And why have we lost that? Why have we lost that, literally, that gut feeling? People don't trust it anymore. But people don't trust their intuition, their gut feelings. You know all their spidey tingles. Yeah, they don't trust those anymore. It's weird that it's been put over into like myth almost. And it's been put over into like myth almost and it's totally wrong because we're almost ignoring a whole half of how we communicate with the world.

julie:

Yeah, yeah. And if the chemicals in our body that deal with how happy we are, how? Content we are, and all of those emotional connections are connected to the gut. Then we got to look after our gut if you want to look after our brain yeah yeah, absolutely, and don't forget, that's where we absorb our vitamin b12 and it's a crucial one, and lots of people are compromised with absorbing b12, especially if they're on acid reducing medications, because we cannot absorb B12 if we are on omeprazole.

catherine:

Like what the majority of the adults in the country.

julie:

Yeah, so we lower the acid and we need the acid to break down our proteins into amino acids. Hey, we kind of need those and we need it to absorb our B12.

catherine:

So interesting. So it actually doesn't matter how many vitamin B12 injections you get, how many. I've got a little spray that I put into the side of my cheek every day for the vitamin B12. It doesn't matter how much of that we do if we can't actually absorb it.

julie:

Well, it's slightly different, because when you spray the B12 inside your cheek, the reason why you're using a spray is to bypass the gut, because we know that lots of people cannot absorb B12 in the gut. It goes straight into the bloodstream where it's used and the same with the injection, but you do want your gut to be working anyway.

catherine:

If it's not absorbing.

julie:

B12, it's not breaking down proteins properly and we're putting a load of crap in there and we're constipated. Yeah, hello, yeah, next one. Let's move on.

catherine:

We've done an episode. We've done lots of episodes on gut health. Go back and listen to those.

julie:

Yeah, here's one for you, Catherine. An active body. Oh yeah, here's one for you Catherine an active body.

catherine:

Oh well, I mean obviously. So, when I was looking into this, so it's, I mean and again, like Julie's been talking about that, these are the things that we'll talk about all the time A lot of this is really really obvious. To be active, it boosts blood flow, so it's delivering essential nutrients, it's delivering that oxygen to your brain to enhance your cognitive function, which I mean, like I've said a few times, I need all the help with at the moment. So when we would, when we were doing that uh quiz and we'll talk about that in a bit when it was talking about things like brain fog, I I'm thinking, oh my goodness, please don't mark me down because I'm so busy and perimenopausal. That's not fair. Yeah, but yeah, but again, just doing everything that I can. So it's yeah.

catherine:

So the activity stimulates neurogenesis, which is the growth of new brain cells. So that's increasing your memory, increasing your learning, and I mean I, like we said earlier, we're learning all the time. I, I love learning, I love learning new stuff, but I don't think because we're not in a standard learning environment, we're not a college or what have you, doesn't mean that we're not learning all of the time. Um, so yeah, so it can only help. Talked about reducing inflammation. Um, exercise and movement, uh, is is definitely needed for that. Um, it improves your mood, it reduces stress, which all has a positive impact on your cognitive function, your brain health and it.

julie:

It's going to bring your sugars down as well, I, I forget. Yeah, initially you get a spike because your body has to release sugars in order to fuel your muscles, but then it actually increases the insulin sensitivity.

catherine:

Yeah.

julie:

So it actually improves.

catherine:

Improves it. Yeah, I think again, though, and these are things, that it's not just like. You're going to do one HIIT and, hey presto, brain health sorted, yeah, sugar sorted. This is something that you've got to um continually do, and it just yeah and I've said this a few times now it enhances your cognitive function. So it increases um, your memory, your attention, your problem solving, which is stuff that we just need, like, all of the time, and I also had looked to see whether there was a particular like type of exercise that would be better for this, but actually they all had their benefits.

catherine:

So you're thinking about the um like cardio again would be boosting that blood flow and sort of taking all those nutrients that oxygen up there hit. So doing a blast and then having a rest. Doing a blast and having a rest had its benefits. Doing those, those heavy lifting, doing the weights, had um, had its own benefits. And then things like yoga, pilates, tai chi all talking about that sort of brain-body connection, and also, with things like that, thinking about all the benefits of meditation that I spoke about last week. Doing things like Pilates and yoga and Tai Chi will drag in all those benefits of meditation as well. So, yeah, it's absolutely essential.

julie:

Yeah, yeah, it is essential and this links in nicely with the mind and social interactions, because a lot of the time when we're doing exercise, we are socially interacting with people.

catherine:

yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. There are so many studies for that, for that social interaction and for that giving and being part of your community, doing voluntary work. All those sorts of things are massively beneficial.

julie:

It's huge. It's coming up a lot on studies, isn't?

catherine:

it.

julie:

That you know, the risk of disease and early death are very much linked to isolation and not having those social interactions. And with your active mind, you've got to use it or you lose it. Yeah, so it's an important one and I know we're going to speak about this, this online quiz that you can do, but did you notice how many of the questions were around? Do you actively do learning? Every day or reading every day and things like that so how many sudoku quizzes do you do?

catherine:

Well, as many as I can get into a day, quite honestly. Yeah, exactly, and reading and things. Wasn't it Just keeping it active and alert and interested?

julie:

Yeah, it's really important. Okay, sleep, sleep is a big one. Why do we think that sleep is important? What happens when we sleep?

catherine:

it's, it's a, it's a dust and clean out, sort of sort of time and that it is.

julie:

Yeah, and we know that lack of sleep impacts things like how we regulate blood sugars. Yeah, as well.

catherine:

Yeah, yeah, because then when you yeah, when you wake up tired and you want to go and eat everything that moves, there is that as well.

julie:

Yeah, so sleep is such an important one. I know, and I know we've spoken about sleep before, and I really feel for you if you struggle with your sleep. There are things that can be looked at and done there. I remember saying to you about a client I had once who was struggling with sleep and then we were looking at the food diary and there was about 14 cups of coffee that was drunk a day and I just hadn't related those two. It still makes me laugh, that one.

catherine:

But that's why it's so important. I mean, obviously it's important to talk to Julie because she's a blooming expert at it, but it's important to actually say these things out loud Because chances are, if they'd have said that to a friend or a relative and it happened to mention they have 14 cups of coffee, somebody might have gone. Do you think that that might be why you're not sleeping? So to to again this social interaction, like talking about these things, yeah, getting out, I mean just I mean I don't know whether there'd be maybe some shame on not thinking that, like they can't go to sleep or they don't get enough sleep, and so shining a light on it and talking about it and just, yeah, getting it off your chest, yeah, it's so beneficial exactly.

julie:

And then again, if it's your total achilles heel, like if you've got a baby at the moment, yeah, you've got to get up then you can't deal with that sleep thing. You've just got to get on with it. But you could do the other nine things yeah can't you no?

catherine:

absolutely, as you can send you back actually to the uh, to the episode about the um, four legs of a chair, yeah, yeah, and making sure that you can, yeah, look after the other three and then the other one is calm because stress, as we know, pushes up inflammation.

julie:

Yes, it impacts blood sugars, yeah, it burns through. It burns through the b vitamins like crazy, yeah. So then we, our homocysteine is going to build up then, because our b vitamins are dealing with it with other things. So stress management is huge and and I know you spoke a lot about on your episode last week about meditation and the benefits to the, to your brain yeah, no, absolutely, and that, yeah, and that all links into that, into that calm.

catherine:

So not only are you ensuring that you've sort of you've brought your body down into a nice calm state so that all of the other functions can work as they should do. You are also, then, creating a way that your brain can not only regenerate but increase in size. So do go back and listen to that, if you haven't listened to it, because it's, I was gonna say, mind-blowing, and I really didn't mean it but it's mind-blowing.

julie:

It is mind-blowing. Okay, let's talk toxins and heavy metals, because again, we have spoken about toxins, what?

catherine:

but what do acdc do wrong to your brain?

julie:

now come on the brain again is a fatty organ, and where do toxins get parked up?

catherine:

they like a nice snuggle up there in that fatty organ they do.

julie:

They get parked up in the organs, mostly because the body will remove them from the blood, because they're dangerous. And if you think about where can they go, yeah, they're going to get parked up in the, in the fatty tissue, and unfortunately there are some particular metals, like aluminium, that have a well, they just love the brain. So if they're in the body and they've got nowhere to go off, they go to the brain and then they interfere with that slide that you spoke about earlier on. Yeah, can't get down your slide if there's a load of metal in the way no, and the same with toxins.

catherine:

Toxins are damaging to the body across all fronts yeah, and again, we talked about toxins fairly recently, so another one to go back and listen to, and I mean it just. It makes sense. So also, doesn't it, if your body is busy dealing with all these additional toxins that you're bringing in it can't.

julie:

It can't do what it's supposed to be doing. No, you've only got a certain amount of resources, haven't you? And the body's really clever, and I and I find it amazing how much abuse you can give your body and it will still manage yeah, quite well.

catherine:

But yeah, if you've got loads of toxins, then your body's not going to be working on the the repair of other things if it's, if it's got the the cleanup crew out, because there's a mess everywhere from all the, you know the chemicals and things but I think dancing to acdc is probably a good thing for your brain, so that sort of heavy metal is absolutely fine that sort of heavy metal Good kitchen disco with that blasting is absolutely fine, yeah.

julie:

I mean to clarify the heavy metals. It's yeah, it's funny, isn't it. Heavy metals are that's a term used for the ones that are toxic to us. So they're naturally occurring, but they are not good for us when they build up. So this is something I look on the hair test all the time as if toxins are showing, because we do have a lot, and back in the day we were using aluminium a lot, yeah, for cooking utensils and things, without realizing the impact. We've got mercury in the fillings, which is another one that likes the brain yeah, yeah and lead.

julie:

You know, we and copper, we didn't know that we were poisoning ourselves.

catherine:

Yeah, yeah, we didn't. We didn't know that we were poisoning ourselves.

julie:

Yeah, yeah, we didn't we didn't know but we've got more awareness on that now. But I do see it come up in people's hair tests and then you need to be able to detoxify from it because it can have an impact, especially aluminium and future risk of alzheimer's massive link there.

catherine:

Yes, there is a big link there. No, you're absolutely right, and I guess if you're looking after your things with your, your b vitamins and your antioxidants as well those guys that's really enhancing the whole cleanup procedure going on around your body.

julie:

So, yeah, and if you're not putting loads of sugar in, because that has to be processed through the liver ultimately, if you've put too much in, then your liver is going to get fatty, yeah, then that's going to make it hard to do the detoxification. Plus, if it's overburdened anyway. Dealing with sugar, yeah, everything is compromised, you know yeah that's sort of a an upcoming epidemic, isn't it?

catherine:

your non-alcohol fatty liver disease?

julie:

yeah, I think it already is a major problem huge especially especially in america, where they put the high fructose corn syrup in everything yeah massive issue, terrifying, yeah, okay. So the last one we got on our list is alcohol and smoking, and I think, when we're going through these lists of things, it's not about being like perfect, yeah, it's not about never having sugar, no, it's not about that. It's just what you're doing most of the time on a consistent basis yeah so I'm not suggesting anyone smokes, by the way.

julie:

No, um, I find it incredible that anybody would these days I.

catherine:

I find it amazing. Actually I was. I was staring at somebody as I ran past them today putting a cigarette out, and I was just like, oh my god. But I mean, I guess, I guess, uh in, uh, well, she wasn't younger, actually she was a lot older, this lady, but I guess in my young years you just you think that you are utterly invincible, don't you? And I still think it's as common as it was when we were younger, which is incredible actually. It blows my mind.

julie:

Yeah, don't get me started on vaping. That also causes problems in the liver, directly impacts a process. But yeah, I'm just going to part that out for the minute. Yeah, smoking and vaping If you're interested in your health, just don't do those things. Just don't do it. Yeah, and alcohol.

catherine:

I mean, there are so many benefits to not drinking alcohol and again, I think we're going to have to do a whole episode on this. We've been talking about this for a while. However, there are Some benefits to drinking red wine, aren't they? In small glasses? In small glasses, yeah, like 10 of them in small, no, no.

julie:

The only issue that I have with that. You've got to look at where the research is coming from. It's got polyphenols in it which are coming from the skin of the red grape.

catherine:

Yeah.

julie:

So if you want the benefits, wouldn't you just eat?

catherine:

the red grapes?

julie:

yeah, I hear that yeah, so it's a difficult one with the alcohol because a lot of the studies are really they contradict themselves and they can't. There's no kind of consensus as to what actually is the better, because I've seen studies that say that if you drink like moderately, what is moderately anyway? What does that actually mean? But if you drink moderately, compared to someone who doesn't drink, the person drinking moderately is better off. But there's too many other factors to consider.

catherine:

Yeah, so I'm not sure how that works, but I do know that I like a glass of wine yeah, and if I can tell myself that glass of red wine is doing me some good, then all the better I can see that point.

julie:

Yeah, and and yeah, if you're going to drink, if you're going to have a glass of wine, then maybe the red is going to be better than the wine, um, but you know, if it's a sunny day and you're out, and you want a glass of pinot grigio, then you know it's such a difficult one, because, yeah, sometimes I feel like, as a nutritionist, you know that the alcohol should not be part of my life, but this is where you've got to balance things up again, isn't it?

catherine:

yeah, because I mean where? Where does it go if we start with the alcohol? The cake might be next julie, and don't take my cake no, and I mean that's just wrong.

julie:

So steady, I think it's a slippery slope, yeah but I think we all know that drinking alcohol you know a lot without having breaks for the liver and and I think I think anybody who drinks alcohol you know yourself if you drink too much you can feel it's not good for you and we know it impacts our sleep and oh, it's, it's everything, isn't it?

julie:

but then we also know that it's quite. It's the feeling of, it's quite nice when we're stressed or we want that, you know, cut off from work to home or whatever it is, and there's loads of associations with it.

catherine:

It's a mind field. I am looking forward to that conversation because I have got lots to say yeah it is a mind field so we've basically gone through like 10 things there.

julie:

Yeah, that you can do to prevent alzheimer's and again, to prevent it is preventable. But you've got to put the work in early and I think some of the some of the studies suggested that we should know where we're at around the age of 40. Okay, in order to put the things in place. Yeah, but it's never too late, is it? No so even if you've been diagnosed with with a early onset dementia, you can still help yourself by making sure that you've got omega-3, vitamin d. The diet's good, the b vitamins are there.

julie:

You're doing your sudoku, yeah yeah, exactly, you're interacting with people, you're moving your body, you're, you're prioritizing that calm and reduced stress yeah, and I don't think it's like even if you get diagnosed with alzheimer's I don't think it's then there's nothing you can do. No, you can slow the progression of it. There's certainly things that you can put in place and it's not just a case of what medications are available, because we know medications comes with side effects as well. And I was saying to you before we come on the podcast, looking at some studies with omega-3 versus a drug that was in trial is the well, there was problems. I won't go into details. There's problems with the drug trial anyway, but the omega-3 was shown to be more beneficial than than the drug. Yeah, in improving symptoms yeah, absolutely.

catherine:

And I mean, and if you are going to have the medications to support you, having all of the other stuff wrap around it, so you know, making sure you've got the b vitamins, making sure you've got the antioxidants to to clear through your toxins so that your body can work more efficiently. It's just, and like we keep saying, if you are doing most of these things, most of the time you will just feel better yeah, and then you're not only reduce, reduce your risk of dementia, but you're reducing feel better.

julie:

Yeah, and then you're not only reduce, reduce your risk of dementia, but you're reducing your risk of cancer, you're reducing your risk of heart disease, strokes, everything, all of those things. Yeah, absolutely yeah.

julie:

So the quiz let's talk about the quiz that we did so going back to Patrick Holford again, he, like I said, he's really passionate about this subject. He spends his life now looking particularly at Alzheimer's and he has got an organization which is charity. It's a charity called Food for the Brain and they've got an online quiz that's free to take and it looks at all these different areas of risk and it gives you a score. So it gives you an overall percentage of risk, but then it breaks it down and you can literally go to each section. You go oh, I've got a red on my gut. Perhaps I'll work on my gut so you don't have to do everything at once. But yeah, if you go for foodforthebrainorg and there's loads of information on there anyway especially if, if you've got, you know, a family history of these sorts of conditions, or or you know someone, you can certainly take the test and see where your weak areas are. And we took the test yesterday, didn't we?

catherine:

yeah, yeah, it was where we were at, very interesting. So it reckons my, my dementia risk is a 34.47 percent and and then what it does is gives you what risk, what the risk factors are in a nice colored chart and and then what they mean and what you can do about it. So best bit, funny enough, is the active body, which is in a nice green color, and 9.38, and I'm I'm guessing the the lower the better for this one.

julie:

And then my highest one was brain fats, uh, which, as a vegetarian, is probably not surprising so having to pay a little bit more attention to the, to the omega-3 will will help that it'd be interesting for you to do the omega index test, because you've been a vegetarian for such a long time. Yeah, to see where you're at with that yeah, definitely, definitely it was.

catherine:

It was really interesting. The other one was interesting was the active mind, and I keep joking about sudoku, but that's what it basically suggested that I needed to play play more games. I was quite pleased actually that my cognitive function test score was uh up in the green, because I was a little bit worried about that. It's quite tricky.

julie:

I mean, it's quite a thorough test, isn't it? And it asks you a lot of questions, but it's definitely worth in investing the time. What did my julie you had?

catherine:

lots, lots of green little bits, didn't you?

julie:

so your only sort of room for improvements were your yeah, brain, fat, antioxidants and gut health yeah, I think that the gut health for me has always been a bit of an achilles heel. I think the other things that I was saying to you is that it was asking about supplementation and things.

julie:

I think it might have slightly marked you down penalized, yeah, I think, for having not, because I know that patrick holford does like his supplements, but I think it's still a good exercise to do and it's completely free. Yeah, and it certainly gives you an idea of where you're at yeah, I mean yeah.

catherine:

So even if you've got you get like this picture, this cog, and it gives you the percentages. So even if you pick the highest one and just start, there?

julie:

Yeah, exactly, just work on it. Just little changes at a time, little changes over a period of time add up to a big change, don't they?

catherine:

And then you can do it again and see the improvement, which will be exciting. We'll post the screenshots of our results onto the Far Too Fabulous Facebook page fabulous facebook page and and, if you want to do the same, we would be really interested in seeing those. Yeah, that would be really good. Yeah, be fantastic. Yeah, so let us know how you get on, and I think there's been lots of takeaways here for everybody. So let us know, maybe, what you've implemented or what you're going to do, and and how it's getting on. Yeah, exactly. Well, thanks for joining us this week. Take care, bye, bye, bye. Thank you for keeping us company today. If you enjoyed the podcast, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.

julie:

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catherine:

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julie:

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catherine:

Make it a fabulous week and we'll catch you in the next episode.